Monte Carlo study of pathlength distribution of polarized light in turbid media

Photon pathlength distributions as a function of the number of scattering events in cylindrical turbid samples are studied using a polarization-sensitive Monte Carlo model with linearly polarized light input. Sample scattering causes extensive depolarization, yielding a photon field comprised of polarized and depolarized sub-populations. It is found that the pathlength of polarization-preserving photons is distributed within a defined spatial range with strong angular dependence. This pathlength, averaged over the range, is 2-3X smaller than the one averaged over the widely-spread range of all (polarized + depolarized) collected photons. It is also demonstrated that changes in optical properties of the media affect the pathlength distributions. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.